Feeding mechanism for carding-engines.



D. C. FISHER. PEBDING MECHANISM POR GARDING ENGINES. APPLICATION FILED JUNE 1, 1911.

1,080,205. Patented De@.2,1913.

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D. C. FISHER.

FBBDING MBGHANISM PoR GARDING ENGINES.

AIPLIOATION FILED JUNE 1, 1911.

1,080,255. 5 Patented Dec.2,1913.

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DANIEL C. FISHER, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR TO MARY A. FISHER, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

EEEDING MECHANISIVI FOR CARDING-ENGINES.

To all whom t may concern:

Be it known that I, DANIEL C. FISHER, a citizen of the United States, and resident of Boston, in the county of Suffolk and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Feeding Mechanism for Carding-Engines, of which the following is a specification.

This invention rela-tes to machines for feeding brous material to various kinds of textile machinery, and it refers especially to that type of machine commonly styled card feeding machines. Machines o-f this character have been constructed in various forms and have been supplied with parts to suit the individual ideas or needs of the individuals. In most respects however the arrangements of the parts of such machines are very similar and consist of a frame work which supports the working parts and a large receiving chamber for the material to be fed.

Machines heretofore constructed by me include a vertically disposed apron mounted upon two shafts, said apron carrying a series of sharp pointed pins which, upon the 'movement of the apron in one direction,

serve to transfer the iibrous material from the receiving chamber to another portion of the machine. In order to prevent a surplus of fibers passing from the receiving chamber, a reciprocating comb is placed above said chamber, said comb acting against the points on the endless apron and assisting in the preparation of the fibers and their distribution over the surface of the said apron. The apron is operated intermittently and is governed by suitable mechanism which determines the amount of material that shall be delivered or transferred from the receiving chamber. The proper stoppingv and starting of this endless apron is chiefly responsible for the uniformity of the delivery from the receiving chamber to the machines which are supplied by the feeding machine. Since the actuation of the apron is intermittent, I have found it desirable to use some device to hold said apron at' the point at which its motion is arrested, and one of the objects of my present invention is to provide an improved device for so holding the apron.

A further object of the present invention is to provide an improved mechanism for facilitating the arrangement of the fibers Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed .Tune 1, 1911.

Patented Dec. 2, 1913. Serial No. 630,708.

with perfect uniformity upon the surface of the feed apron which receives the fibers from the weighing scale.

A further object is to provide an improved structure for preventing the escape of any of the fibers, in the form of waste.

l/Vith th-ese and further objects in view, all tending to materially simplify and im prove the construction and operation of machines of the character stated, the invention consists in the construction and combination of parts substantially as herein-after described and claimed.

Of the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 represents a vertical section from front to rear of a machine embodying my present improvements, it being understood however that some of the gearing represented in Fig. l would appear in the actual machine as in elevation on the side of the machine nearest the point of view of said ligure. Fig. 2 is a. detail side elevation of certain parts of the machine, taken from the side opposite Fig. l. Fig. 3 represents a section through the clutch mechanism which prevents retrograde motion of the apron shaft, the line of sect-ion being on dotted line 3 3 of Fig. 1l. Fig. 4: represents a section on line lr-4 of Fig. 3.

Similar reference characters indicate the same or similar parts in all of the figures.

The frame of the machine is provided with side plates 20, said frame being supported upon adjustable feet 2l by means of which the machine maybe adjusted to suit the height of the carding or other machine to which it is to supply material. The transferring apron 22 is mounted upon sprockets carried by upper and lower shafts 23, 24E respectively, the lower sprocket being as usual located at the bottom of the receiving chamber, a port-ion of said bottom being indicated at 25 in Fig. l. The apron comprises slats 26 having pointed pins 27, the slats being` connected together in any suitable manner such as by being carried by the links of what is known as the Ewart detachable chain.

Cooperating with the apron 22 and its pins, is the opening comb 29 which comprises a plate having teeth so formed and spaced as to alternate with the paths of travel vof the pins of the transferring apron. Said comb is secured to a strip 30 which in turn is carried by arms 31 mounted upon a rock shaft 32, one end of which is provided with an arm 33. Said arm 33 is connected by a link 34 with a crank pin 35 carried by a gear 36 mounted on a suitably supported stud shaft 37. The gear 36 is driven by a pinion 38 mounted on a shaft 39, which latter shaft may be driven by any suitable means (not shown). Cooperating with the other side of the apron is a stripping comb 45, said comb being mounted upon a strip 46 which is secured to arms 47 of a rock shaft 48, said rock shaft having an arm 49 connected by a link 50 with an arm 51 of the rock shaft 32.

The structure, as so far described, includes nothing claimed herein, but is illustrated and briefly described toexplain the advantages of the features of improvement hereinafter described and claimed. As in the machine shown and claimed in Letters Patent 872719, granted to me Dec. 3, 1907, the operation of the transferring apron is intermittent. In order that there may not be the slightest retrograde motion of the apron from the point from which its operative motion is arrested, I provide an improved structure which I will now describe, referring especially to Figs. 2, 3 and 4. One end of the upper shaft 23 is mounted in a journal bearing 54, said bearing, in the structure illustrated, being supported by a bracket 55 which is secured to onev of the side plates 20 by suitable means such as a screw 56, said bracket having a yoke 57 at its upper end carrying screws 58 which enter recesses in the journal bearing 54. Lock nuts 59 are preferably employed for holding the-screws 58 in adjusted positions.

The end of the shaft 23 projects outwardly beyond the bearing 54 and has secured thereto a cup-shaped casting 60, as by a screw 61. The cup-shaped portion of the casting is preferably internally roughened as at 62. A roll 63 isv mounted in a wedge-shaped space formed between the internal surface of the cup 60 and a flat face 'or wall 64 of the journal bearing 54. Said fiat face is preferably slightly inclined as best shown in Fig. 4. As the journal bearing is stationary, while the cup 60 rotates, with the shaft 23, in the direction of the arrow in Fig. 4, and since the roll 63 is free to gravitate to the bottom of the wedgeshaped space, the said roll presents no obstruction to rotation of the cup 60 and shaft 23 in the direction necessary when the transferring apron is moving in the direction of its operative motion. But the roll remains always in such position as to instantly prevent any retrograde motion from the point at lwhich the operative motion of the apron is arretsed.

A scale pan 65 o-f suitable construction receives the fibers delivered by the transfer'- ring apron, or taken therefrom by the strip ping comb 45, and. deposits the fibers upon the feed apron 67 which is mounted upon sprockets carried by shafts mounted in side plates 66 of the frame. The fibers are guided as they fall, by inclined walls 68, 69. The feed apron preferably consists of slats carried by chains, the upper stretch of the apron being suitably supported so that it cannot sag.

Mounted in the side plates 66 is the oscillat-ing compressor comprising pins 70 projecting from a roller shaft 71. The pins or curved points 70 are so formedv as to provide a recess between their points and the surface of the roller 71,4 and are designed to engage with and take up a given or predetermined amount of fibrous material and convey said material underneath the roller and press the material forward between said roller and the surface of the feed apron 67 Both the surface of the apron and the surface of the roller 71 contribute in the operation of the format-ion of the mat. Substantially parallel with the roller 71, and behind it in the sense that it takes or operates upon fibrous material which leaves the roller 71, is a plain roll 72 having means whereby it will be rotated continuously at the same surface speed as the surface speed of the feed apron. In Fig. 1 I have indicated the roll 72 as driven by a chain, represented by dot ted lines the other end of which is mounted on a sprocket carried by a shaft which is driven by one of the shafts of the feed apron 67. The pressure exerted by this roll 72 upon the fibrous material between it and the surface of the apron forms a resistance against which the mat is formed by the operat-ion of the oscillating compression roller which brings forward the fibrous material upon the surface of the apron. It will be seen therefore that a certain space is provided, and a certain speed of opera-- tion upon the mat is secured so that with a given pressure by the oscillating roller, so long as there are any fibersA to be brought forward, will present a certain amount of fibers within a certain area of therapron. The rotary roll and the oscillating compressor are both mounted at a height above the apron to exert rolling pressure upon the mat of fibrous material formed by the points the machine is more delicate than if the material had to be pushed by the pins under a stationary pressing member behind the roller 7l.

The actuating mechanism for the oscillating roller 7l and its points 70, consists of a pinion 73 (see Fig. 2) secured to the shaft which supports said roller, said pinion 73 engaging a segmental gear 74: mounted upon` a rock shaft 75. The connection of this segment 74 with its shaft 75 is such that the segment is actuated positively in one direction and elastically in its operative direction, by means such as described -in my said Patent No. 872,719. A particular improvement in this port-ion Aof my present invention consists in providing a variable motion for the rock shaft F5. The mechanism for doing this consists of a gear 76 driven by a pinion 77 on the shaft 89, said gear 7G having a radial slot 78 in which is adjustably secured a crank pin 79, said pin operating in a curved slot 80 formed in an arm 81 carried by the shaft 75. It will no-w be understood that as the gear 76 rotates, the crank pin 79 projecting therefrom moves lengthwise of the curved slot 80. Since the motion of the gear 7 6 is constant, thecrank pin 79 causes a variable motion of the rock shaft and the segment 74, and this motion is of course transmitted to the roller 7l and the pins 70. The direction ofrotation of the gear 76 is indicated by an arrow in Fig. 2. It will be understood that the movements of the rock shaft and segment will be necessarily fast during the time that the crank pin is nearest to the upper end of the curved slot 80, and that when the pins 70 are in actual contact with the mat underneath the roller, the motion of the said roller will be practically arrested because during this time the crank pin 79 is moving in a path practically concentric with the curved slot 80. This allows of a dwell or period of time while the pressure of the pins 70 of the oscillating roller is applied to the material between said roller and the apron. I have found that this action is superior to an immediate withdrawal of the pressure upon the material by the oscillating roller `in the formation of the mat. The structure described provides for operating the oscillating roller with a variable motion, said motion consisting. of a quick withdrawal from its active position and a slow motion in its operative direction, coming to a complete rest for a period to exert pressure upon the fibers gathered between the surface of the roller and the surface of the feed apron.

To prevent the escape of any fibers from the machine, in the form of waste, I inolose the aprons 22 and 82 which form one side and the bottom respectively of the space constituting the receiving chamber for the material. The apron 82 is horizontal and is designed to carry the material in the receiving chamber toward the transferring apron 22 when there is so little material in the receiving chamber that the apron 22 might not take the .proper amount of material. Parallel with the outer or down stretch of the apron 22 is a wall or partition 85 suitably held in place by transverse bars 86. At the extreme lower end of this wall or partition 85 is a curved metal pan 87, the lower portion of which conforms to the radius o-f the lower portion of the apron passing around the shaft 24. The curved portion of this pan is preferably provided with suitable perforations 88 to allow seed, sand or leaf or other objectionable matter to escape. The action of the points 27 of the apron 22 upon the bers is such as to tend to dislodge from the fibers any such objectionable matter so that the latter may escape through the perforations 88. The bottom 25 of the receiving chamber, which has been hereinbefore referred to, is preferably of sheet metal. At one edge it meets the edge of the curved pan 87. Its other edge is ycurved upwardly as at 89 with the result that the said bottom 25 and the curved portion 89 conform to the lower stretch and the upwardly moving portion of the apron 82 so that all material dropping onto said bottom will be carried up by the apron and over to the transferring apron 22. The curved portion 89 especially contributes to this result.

It will now be understood that the partition 85, pan 87 and bottom 25 with its curved portion 89 all contribute to the action of the machine in preventing dropping of the clean fibers onto the floor and becoming mixed with any waste that is on the floor.

1. In a machine of the character described, a transferring apron, means for intermittently actuating said apron, and instantaneous detent mechanism for holding the apron against retrograde motion from the point at which its operative motion is arrested, said detent mechanism including a stationary `member and an intermittently movable member, said members having a wedge-shaped space between them, and a gravitating roll mounted in said space.

2. In a machine of the character described, a transferring apron, a shaft for said apro-n, a bearing for said member having a at face, a cup-shaped member secured to the shaft and embracing the portion of the bearing having said flat face, and a gravitating roll mounted in the space between said flat face and inner surface of the cup-shaped member.

3. In a machine of the character described, a feed apron, an oscillating compressor and a rotary roll mounted in fixed bearings above the apron, the rotary roll being mounted at a height above the apron to exert rolling pressure upon the mat of fibrous material formed by the oscillating compressor, and means for actuating the rotary roll kwith a surface speed equal to i s scribed, rthe combination with a 'feed apron,

that of the apron.

4. In a machine of the character described, a feed apron, an o scillating compressor comprising a roller having curved projections to engage the fibrous material, and a rotary roll mounted in Xed bearings behind the compressor and having means for rotating it at the same surface speed as the speed 0f travel of the apron.

5. In a machine of the character described, the combination with a feed apron, of an'oscillator'to supply material to said apron, and a roll mounted in fixed bearings above the apron and behind the oscillator toy assist tlie latter in forming the mat on said apron, and means for continuously rotating said roll at the same surface speed as the speed of travel of the apron.

,6. In a machine of the character described having a receiving chamber, a transferring apron, a weighing scale, a substantially horizontal feed apron, an oscillatory roller having points projecting from its surface to engage with the fibers and bring them forward upon the surface of the apron, and a second ,roller having means for moving it at the surface speed of the feed apron, said roller being mounted in fixed bearings and serving to compress the mat formed by the oscillating roller on the feed apron.

7. In a machine of the character described, the combination with a feed apron, of an oscillating roller, and means for imparting a variable motion to said oscillating roller.

8. In a machine of the character described, the combination with a feed apron, of. a compression roller, an oscillating roller, and means for imparting a variable motion to said oscillating roller, the said means for l loo-,8.93395 imparting Vvariable motion including devices for imparting .a slowY movement to the roller in itsboperative Vdirection and a quick return movement.

9. -In a machine of the character deofan oscillatingcompressor and means for variably moving'l said oscillator, `sai-d means comprising a rock shaft having a segment, a pinion carried by the oscillator and meshing ywith said segment, an arml connected' with said segment andA having a curved slot, and a rotary @rank engaging Seid Curved' Slot i i v10. In a machine of the character described, the combination ywith a substantially vertical transferringapron, of a substantially horizontal apron at one side of the lower yend 0f the transferring apron, and means for preventing the escape of fibers, said' means comprising a substantially vertical wall, a curved pan at the lower end of said wall, and a `horizontal bottom section connecting said pan with the outer end of the horizontal apron.

11. In a machine of the character described, the combination with a substantially vertical transferring apron, of a substantially horizontal apron at one side of the lower end of the transferring apron, and means for preventing .the escape of fibers, said means comprising a substantially vertical wal'l, a curvedpan at' the lower end of said wall, and a horizontal bottom section extending from said :pan to the outer end of the horizontal apron, the outer edge of the horizontal bottom being curved upwardly, .and the curved pan having openings to permit the escape of foreign matter.

`In testimony whereofiI have afHXed my signature in presence of two witnesses.

DANIEL C. FISHER. Witnesses z A. WV. HAnRIson, Manif A. FISHER.

Cropies of this patent may be obtained for ve cents each, by, addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D., C. 

